


Seek and You Will Find

by Sparrowed



Series: Alternate Universe - Stanford University [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Baseball, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:47:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21736303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparrowed/pseuds/Sparrowed
Summary: The original love story of Tatiana Lovitis Lundraw and Zalzi Malt reïmagined: a very self indulgend A!U fiction.Build in the same Universe as "On the Screws" by Haewkes.
Series: Alternate Universe - Stanford University [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1566622
Kudos: 3





	1. Prelude

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [On the Screws.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620953) by [Haewkes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haewkes/pseuds/Haewkes). 



> For the three friends reading this story about my OC falling in love all over again with her fantasy medieval sweetheart... I hope y'all can appreciate this or something. I hope you enjoy seeing bits and pieces of your own OC's as well and I hope I do them somewhat justice. Let's hear it for the College A!U's y'all.

The cult of Vanitis. Relatively unknown in most of the United States. Some that do know would say they have ties to the witches of Salem. Some would say they have satanic origins. Others would say they liked to roleplay being werewolves. All of them would say they are kinda nuts. Tatiana Lovitis Lundraw, as her full name rang, didn't blame those opinions. They simply didn't know the enlightenment of worshipping the influence of the moon tides in your day to day life. They didn't know the blessing of freedom that comes with the god Olki and the moon goddess Cerce. Eon old gods from the deepest parts of European mythology. The cult of Vanitis was one of the last ones to honor those traditions of the past. 

The European cult was and has always been a nomadic spiritual group. The original group started in Germany, from there on they moved to France (where they had picked up Tatiana's parents and their 3 children along the way), after that was Spain and when they thought it was time for some new, fresh lands, they crossed the Atlantic ocean and settled themselves in California. By the time they arrived there, the children of the cult were all early in their teenage years and therefor had to enroll into the American educational system. All of the teens in front of Tatiana had been her friends for her entire life. And one way or another they all got accepted into Stanford. Even though their unusual upbringing, they were still normal kids like any other.

Avesoete was the most wary of how easy it had seemed to be to get in, as she was vocally exclaiming at the moment. "Mark my words, they want to unleash some kind of psychological freak experiment on us. A university this esteemed, admitting all of us? It has to be!" _Okay, so maybe they weren’t really totally normal._ Avesoete Vanitis von Swanenburg, daughter of one of the original siblings to start Vanitis. She inherited her good looks from her mother, curly dark blonde and super long hair and those blushed cheeks with freckles that make her look so cute. She sadly also inherited her father’s semi paranoia. As clever as Avesoete was, as impressionable as she was too. Tati was pretty sure it was because she was born on a full moon.

Laura Novis Firestone, born in the UK and integrated into the group with her mother after the divorce, had the lovely decency to swallow her mouthful of pizza before scoffing at Avesoete. “Come on, you really believe that? Listen, you got in because your GPA is pretty much perfect, Tati got in pretty much for the same reason, because the both of you are fucking nerds. Me and Ramiro got in because of our baseball scholarship and Tobias got into the Conservatory of Music here. It’s not that deep.” Laura waved off Avesoete’s worries with the slice of pizza still in her hand, making sure that none of the flying tomato sauce got stuck in her long brown hair.

Ramiro Semaris Kraus, son of the original brother to start the cult, therefor son of their chief, and therefore also leader and representative of their teenaged friend group, chimed in as well. “I have to agree with Laura there, Soe. Just because the university is known for one horribly failed experiment, doesn’t mean they’d love to get into another controversial one.”

Tobias fiddled awkwardly with the strings on his guitar while looking at the ground a bit sheepishly. “Can we please stop talking about these conspiracy theories? It makes me a little queasy.” Tatiana felt a pang of guilt for her older brother, so she gently messed up his sand colored wild mess of a haircut. She knew he didn’t like spooky stories and therefor she cut off the discussion with one stern look around the rest of the group. Tobias Novis Lundraw, Tatiana’s older brother and her closest friend. Inseparable since childhood and her strongest foundation through their hectic lives. Also the person who she would always root for. He was an amazing soulful guitar player and since they used to share a bedroom together since forever, she was pretty used falling asleep to him practicing in the evenings. Now that they were all enrolling into a new public university, that would all change, right?

“Shouldn’t we get back to our dorms now? I still have to meet my new roommate.” Tatiana murmured. The rest of the group had been so lucky to buck up together with the four of them. Tobias and Ramiro were roommates and Laura and Avesoete as well. That meant that there was one person of their group that had to room with a stranger outside their group. That thrilled and worried her at the same time. What if the girl was mean or prying or worse… thought she was crazy for her upbringing. With a gentle shove to her shoulder, Laura eased her worries with a big grin. “Hey now, don’t go all pussy on us here, Tati. Remember! Never-” 

“Fear.” Tati finished with a sigh, referencing one of their scriptures, as she gently touched the shoulder where the words were tattooed in Latin text. That particular tattoo hadn’t been a rite of passage, like the intricate half moon symbol on her left shoulder had been, but she thought it matched the other one quite nicely and balanced the images out. 

“I know I know, but it’s easy for you to say, all of you get to room together. I’m the odd duckling out. I just hope she’s nice, you know?” Ramiro gently squeezed her arm and gave her a warm smile. “We’ll all be just down the hallway, so just come over whenever you get a little homesick.” She warmly smiled back at him. Ramiro had been very gentle and caring with her as of late and she couldn’t say she hated the attention. Maybe it was because he was worried for her as they started this new phase in their lives. “Thank you, Ramiro. Well…” She addressed the rest of them. “I’ll better meet my new roommate then. See you guys tonight for dinner.” Tatiana closed the door of Avesoete and Laura’s new dorm room behind her and started the little trek down the hallway to her own new room, only to touch her rite tattoo again during the walk.

All of them had the rite of passage tattooed on them and in the warm summer weather of the newly starting school year, they were proudly shown underneath short sleeve shirts or tank tops. Everyone had a slightly different one depending on which moon phase they had been born in. That’s also where every one of them got their weird, yet slightly similar middle names from. Tobias and Laura were the only ones to have matching tattoos, and matching middle names because they both were born on a new moon. The Novis symbolizes creativity and innovation. Ramiro adorned a Semaris symbol on his left shoulder, for vigilance, thoughtfulness and caution, for being born on a waning moon. The Vanitis tattoo was reserved for Avesoete, being the only one born on a full moon. She was the most positive and naturally clever of all of them. Inside the cult it was believed a person born on a Vanitis was the most spiritually aligned with Cerce, and therefore they were destined to become the group’s spiritual guides. 

Tati’s own half moon symbol, Lovitis, stood for morals and sense of justice and that’s probably where her love for philosophy came from. Besides the deep meaning of the tattoos inside their religion, she also had to admit… it was pretty freaking dope having matching tattoos with your best friends. Secret best friend tattoos! She was happy she was able to get into Stanford with all of them besides her, it would make integrating so much easier. 

Speaking of integrating, she had been standing a good minute or so in deep thought staring dumbly at her own door, before she made the active conscious decision that it may indeed be a good idea to actually test out the functionality of the doorknob and use it to open it. So.. that’s exactly what she did and her guess was right that by now her new roommate was already there unpacking her own stuff. 

The girl was gorgeous. Loose blonde soft waves just past her shoulders, a cherry red color adorning her slightly pouty lips and lush lashes framing her almond eyes. Dear Olki, Tati felt a pang of jealousy. She herself was never truly able to tame her scraggly platinum hair peeks into something that cute of a hairstyle. So mostly she wore it loose or in a bun to just be over with it. 

“Hon, I know I look like a straight up meal, but your staring isn’t making it more comfortable for either of us. I’m Matill Allais, by the way. And if you ever find your tongue again, maybe you could tell me yours?” The girl in front of her, Matill, purred, circling a lock of her hair around her perfectly manicured finger. 

First of all, the beauty of the girl had caught her off guard for just a second, sure, but the witty response of the girl made her even more embarrassed than Tatiana’s staring had initially done. Tati turned beet fucking red and when Tati turned beet _fucking_ red, the stammering started to happen. “I am _so_ sorry-- I- I- You are really pretty and stuff and Ididn’texpect--caughtmeoffguard... _HiI’mTatianaLundraw,nicetomeetyou.”_ She shoved her extended hand in the girl’s direction but suddenly the buckles on her loafers were totally catching all of her attention right now and there was no time to cast another look at Matill, nope Tatiana’s loafers were worth a full examination right now. Tati felt a soft hand slide into hers and Matill chuckled. 

“Relax, Frighty the Fox. I was just messing around. Nice to meet you, Tatiana.” At that Tati released a breath as her loafers were now fully examined and she could cast a look at Matill again. The girl really had a friendly look in her eyes so that made Tati ease up a little bit more before she released the girl’s hand. “You have a nice accent, where are you from?” Matill turned back around to the suitcase full of clothing she was currently unpacking into their shared wardrobe. “France, actually. But we’ve been travelling around a lot. I saw probably every province of France before we moved onto Spain and afterwards we came here.” Tati explained, while she sat down on her already made bed. They already had a little bit of time to unpack since they had arrived earlier in the morning.

“Oh, that’s nice. I have a friend who comes from Spain. Do you speak the language?” Tati shrugged. “Un poco. We mostly spoke English just to make it easier, but we picked up bits and pieces from the countries we travelled through. You kinda have to if you stay in a country for an extended period of time.” Matill finished hanging her last dress in the wardrobe before she turned around with a smile. “A multi-langual huh? I’m sure you could help me out in my linguistic classes then.” 

“What minor are you doing then? If you have linguistics?” 

“I’m in Conservatory of Music for playing the violin as a sophomore, but since writing music requires a grasp of linguistics, they put it in our curriculum. So far, I’ve been able to work my way around the Spanish pieces with Lothar’s help, but we’re starting on some classical French pieces this year, so I could use your help. What are you in for?”

“Freshman, minoring in philosophy and ancient studies.” 

“Oh! So you speak Latin as well!” 

Tatiana chuckled. Big misconception. “Latin isn’t really spoken anymore. Being a dead language and all, but yeah, I can read and write it.” 

Matill shrugged. “Same all, same all. But cool I suppose, to each their own. Hey, since I’m done unpacking, I think I will go see if Lothar needs some help. You can come if you have nothing to do. I can introduce him to you, since I’m sure you’ll be seeing him a lot as well.” 

Tati looked a little uncertain at Matill, but then decided that it would probably good for her to broaden her horizons beyond Vanitis. This was university after all, the real life started only just now. “Sure, sounds good.” 


	2. The Stanford Basement Mystery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dare lead the new classmates on an expedition to the basement of the Stanford campus. Zalzi and Tatiana get to know each other for the first time. 
> 
> Vladistov is there???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I never thought that   
> You would be the one to hold my heart  
> But you came around  
> And you knocked me off the ground from the start." 
> 
> \- arms, Christina Perri

It was a typical autumn afternoon: outside the wind smashed the incoming raindrops against the slightly condensed windows of the Psychological building on the campus of Stanford University and a small group of about ten psychology and philosophy freshmen made themselves comfortable inside. The depressing mood of the terrible weather outside threw every chance of productivity right out the window, even though professor Negorid from Ancient Philosophy definitely had given them a big load of reading to get through before the next lecture. The frustrated sighs of the group not being able to focus on their work, quickly evolved into a chatting session. Despite taking this course together for well over two months now, it was still clear that not everyone of them had gotten to know each other. 

The conversation did not really revolve around anything in particular. One moment they discussed their parents’ jobs and the next moment they were vehemently discussing the superiority of cinnamon rolls above homemade apple pie. Not that the two were even remotely comparable in Tatiana’s eyes. They both had their own time and place, and therefore nobody really needed to pick favorites. 

Her attention however was grabbed by her enthusiastic and loud fellow philosophy classmate Zalzi. She didn’t know a whole lot about him apart from the fact that he was Lothar’s roommate and that he took most of the same courses as Tati herself. They were even admitted to the same psychology project, hence why they were now sitting down to work on the preparation of the video essay they had due in three weeks. 

By the time Tatiana actively tried to listen back in, the conversation had drifted from pastries to one of the psychology professors, Gustav Vladistov. Tati herself didn’t have any classes with the bulgarian professor, but she had seen him once or twice and definitely heard the stories from her project partners before. One of the girls, Merise, loudly exclaimed that she found him a ‘creep’. Zalzi sat up straighter from the position where he leaned back against the wall to once again join the conversation. 

“I heard a rumor from some seniors that Vladistov actually paid off the lab supervisors to allow him to use the giant freezers in the basement for his freak experimentation projects. The rumor is that every disappearing cat or dog in the area is being experimented on in that freaky lab of his, so he can dissect their brain to see how they work.” He told the rest.

The story sounded as unbelievable as you'd think, but the way it made Zalzi perk up in his posture, Tatiana was wondering if he might actually believe in those tall tales. Zalzi answered Tati’s unbelieving stare with a challenging one of his own and a shrug of his shoulders. “What? Merise’s right: he’s creepy. I wouldn’t put it past him...”

“Yeah, right. As if Vladistov would be so stupid as to illegally pluck people’s wandering pets off the street to cut them up. Like they would allowed him to dissect those animals. He’d be fired immediately. More importantly, those freezers are controlled fridges strictly off limits for anybody, but the lab assistants that have the clearance for it. We students aren’t even allowed to step foot  _ in  _ the basement.” She shook her head in disbelief and crossed her arms. 

“He might be a neuroscientist, but I’m sure he has better things to do in his spare time than disecting pets for his own pleasure.” 

Zalzi definitely picked up on the challenge in her tone and turned his chair straight in her direction as he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and giving her a challenging smirk. She in turn crossed her legs and sat up a little bit straighter against the back of her chair, crossing her arms and tilting her head, opposing his challenge and listen to him in amusement.

“Exactly.  _ We _ aren’t allowed down there, so how can you know for certain that there isn’t a stock of lost pets being stored there for him to dissect? Would you even have the guts to go and find out for yourself what the truth is? To validate your hypothesis? Plus, you said it yourself, he’s a neuroscientist, so of course he is interested in poking around that grey mush. And since he obviously can’t get his hands on actual human test subjects, he has to go for the next best thing: man's best friend.” Tati raised one eyebrow as he made his unbelievable story even bolder, but she noticed one of her classmates, Maxen, actually nodding along as if it made sense. “Of course his subjects are well hidden in one of the fridges in the back, being kept closed at all times with a big lock that only he has the key to. So that the supervisors don’t have a clue of what’s inside either, to protect his dirty little secret.” Zalzi continued.

Merise sitting on the opposite table visibly shuddered at the thought and Tati stared at her mouth wide open. “Please tell me you don’t actually believe him, do you?” 

Merise held up both of her hands in defence. “Hey, don’t look at me! It’s obviously thickened to an excessive amount, but Zalzi’s right. He is a neuroscientist, and therefore it does make a lot of sense that he has to dissect brains to specialize in his field of work. Plus I’m sure he has to keep up with every new research paper that has been published since he became a professor... It just makes sense, that’s all I’m saying! Either way if he ever makes me dissect  _ anything _ , I’m dropping out and moving back home. I simply refuse.” 

“Oh no, I disagree. I actually  _ hope _ that we get to dissect some actual brains, that would be super fun.” Maxen replied to Merise with a wide teasing grin on his face, to which she pulled up her lip in disgust.

Tati groaned and she let her other two project partners continue bickering amongst themselves while she turned back her attention to the widely gleaming Zalzi in front of her. 

“Okay fine…” She said. Zalzi perked up, a victorious gleam sparkling in his eyes, grinning from ear to ear, but before he could open his mouth to celebrate her admitting he was right, she continued the rest of her sentence. “I’ll go with you to the basement to find out for once and for all if this rumor is true or not.” With a wide smirk she saw the victorious gleam in his eyes be replaced with surprise and shock, while she shoved her books and notes inside her bag and stood op from her chair straight in front of him, looking down. 

Slinging her bag over one shoulder, she smirked and raised one eyebrow at him, but at the same time making sure he knew she was completely serious about her little expedition. “You coming? Or is H.P. Lovecraft over here scared of wandering in the dark, cold, creepy basement?”

A soft chorus of ‘oooooooh’ and ‘whooo's arose from the group around them. Zalzi appeared to be in conflict at her dare, on one hand he didn’t want to back down on her, and in doing so: admitting defeat, but on the other hand he was uncertain if it was actually a good idea to head to the basements where they weren’t allowed to go. But then his eyes turned determined when he seemed to make up his mind, standing up straight in front of her and dropping his book with a bang on the table next to them. “Okay…” The group roared out in in different exclamations of disbelief or excitement, some even trying to hold them back, reminding the two they could get into big trouble if they were caught.

“Challenge accepted. I’m surprised. You didn’t seem like you had it in you. However, I’ll won’t blame you, if you don’t want to slander your spotless reputation with the staff here and want to back down.” Zalzi continued, while he took the lead, walking to the door leading to the hallway and he held it open for her with a shiteating grin on his face. “Ladies first.” And gestured into the hallway. 

Tatiana answered his shiteating grin with one of her own. While it seemed that he was confident, she could practically smell him quaking in his boots and Tati was fully prepared to go along with this little spectacle of his, just to see how far he would go to prove a point he  _ knew _ was wrong. And obviously to hold it over his head for the rest of the week. 

Once they left the study room behind them and with that the extra agitation from the group for each to prove their point, Zalzi dropped his strong male behavior for her. “I  _ really _ didn’t think you’d dare. I’ll admit, you have guts, Lundraw.” The honesty surprised her and when she looked up to the taller man walking next to her, he looked her over with a fiery stare that she couldn’t quite figure out to be respect or approval or a deeper fascination. “You don’t seem particularly scared. Is there anything you  _ are  _ scared of?” 

Was he assessing her fears for later exploitation? Tati carefully narrowed her eyes at him as she answered him with a lot of calculation behind her words. “I think I’m scared of uncertainty.” She finally answered as they turned another corner on their way to the basement staircase. That definitely seemed to catch him of guard, as he tilted his head in surprise and raised his eyebrows. 

“What do you mean? Penny for your thoughts behind that one?” Zalzi softly chuckled out, genuinely being curious but also clueless to why she was scared of that. She sighed and shrugged. “I don’t know… Like, not knowing what the future holds. If I’ll ever land comfortably on my own two feet. My life has been pretty much guided by the adults of Vanitis, so much that I barely had a choice of my own. Being here, away from their decision making, I have to do that on my own now. I’m scared of that, I suppose. Being on my own, the option to fuck up tremendously, not knowing if it’s all going to work out or if I’m made for living on my own or dealing with the responsibilities that come with it. I would like for me to have a bit more of a clear set plan, instead of not having control over it.”

Suddenly the urge to start chewing on her lower lip omitted her so that’s exactly what she started to do. She had barely spoken a few conversations with him before and now she was suddenly spilling the beans on her anxieties? Well, the least thing she could get in return for spilling her own guts was figuring out his own fears, and so she asked him what his were. 

Zalzi exhaled and took a few seconds to give his own answer as well. “Loneliness, isolation, I think.” When she tilted her head in the same manner he had done, he got her insinuation to elaborate on that and sighed again. “I got here on my own, with no other friends from highschool, so I have to start all over. I think… I’m afraid of ending up on my own with no friends or something. Which sound stupid, I know, I get along pretty well with almost anyone. But… I don’t know. Dumb fear I guess to be scared about.” He shook his head and frowned, seemingly unwilling to further talk about it, judging by his tightened jaw and his silent stare at the floor as they continued walking. Wow, that was one big fear to own up to and she touched his upper arm in silent comfort for just a small moment. “It’s not a dumb fear. I get it. Trust me when I say that will not happen.” And when he looked back over at her, she gave him a reassuring and friendly smile. Tati was sure they would become close friends after this little excursion of theirs. 

By that time, they were halfway down the basement stairs already. She took one glance back up the stairs and diffused the thick, heavy air around them with another wide grin. “Halfway there, you can still back down, Malt.” He puffed and crossed his arms over his chest, firing her determination right back at her with a curt jerk of his head down the stairs. “Not in a million years, Lundraw, let’s go take a look, huh? Unless you offered me the option to back down, because secretly you don’t want to go?” He teased her. Tati decided to call bluff and was by now pretty sure that he really wanted her to back down, because he didn’t truly want to do it himself. 

“I said I wasn’t scared and I’ll prove it too, since you don’t really seem convinced of my bravery yet, Zalzi.” And with one last grin of her own she descended fully down into the stuffy, cold, flickering LED-lit basement hallway.

\---

Slowly and carefully they both made their way down the thankfully emptied out hallway of the basement below the laboratories of the psychology facilities. Tati figured out that most of the supplies being used during the experimentations, where being transported via the elevator further down that lead directly up to the laboratories themselves and also that there weren’t any demos being held in evening lectures, since it was already 7 P.M. She  _ hoped  _ it at least, because if there would be staff walking around downstair right now,  _ they would be in big trouble. _ And they wouldn’t be able to fake any sort of freshmen ignorance, since they did technically walk straight past the ‘no entrance for students’ board that was placed smack dab in the center at the top of the staircase.

The flickering LED lights above them washed the hallway in a dim, vaguely toad green color that made the entire space look like they plucked it straight out of a cliche horror movie. She wondered if Zalzi had seen Asylum yet and if he might like to watch it with her sometimes. In any case it really reminded her of their current situation right now. In the film the students discover that their university used to be an asylum and all kinds of creepy stuff ensues. 

Oh.

It hit her. Stanford was maybe not known for being an asylum, but it  _ was _ known for another horribly mentally scarring psychological experiment… And the location of those test subjects had been in a basement… It couldn’t- It couldn’t be this one right?

As her heartrate picked up at that realization, a loud noise up ahead startled both of them and Tatiana instinctively reached for Zalzi’s hand, while she scanned her eyes further down the hallway for any sign of movement. When nothing seemed to be moving she released a shaky breath she didn’t know she had been holding. 

Zalzi squeezed her hand gently and looked down at her with the same shaky fright in his eyes, as she was currently feeling. “Woah there, you startled me more than that did.” He whispered in a soft tone and thankfully he forgoed any teasing, when he saw how shaky she was. “Are you sure you’re not scared of this place?” His question rang with the insinuation that if she wanted to leave, he would take her back upstairs without any further teasing. He didn’t want to push her for a joke if it stopped being funny. 

“It’s not exactly that I’m scared of what Vladistov might or might not have hidden down here. I just realized something. This place… The basement of the  _ Psychology building… _ At  _ Stanford University. _ A certain out of control experiment in 1971-” She summed up for him near silently. And she saw the shock settle on his face immediately when it clicked with him as well. “-The Stanford Prison Experiment.” He finished for her, in a breathless whisper, eyes wide. 

“We really shouldn’t be here, huh?” Zalzi murmured and he looked like he was about to jump around and run back up the stairs and honestly she would follow him suit as quickly as possible. The atmosphere of the hallway seemed to thicken in that moment too and what had already seemed like a creepy place, became even more so. She was hyper aware now of any sound surrounding them, from the electricity running through the circuits above them, to the sound of the LED’s as they flickered on and off, to a dripping of liquid further down the corridor and all of it bore down a heavy energy on her that hadn’t a minute before. 

“Should we go back?” Zalzi breathed, squeezing her hand a little tighter. Before she could agree, Zalzi jumped and let out a yelp as the his phone started ringing loudly in the hallway. Quickly, yet shakily he fished the offending device out of his back pocket and Tati shoved the two of them as quickly as she could into the nearest room and closed the door behind them, afraid they might have been heard. 

_ Shit, shit,  _ **_shit._ ** _ They were totally gonna get in trouble. _

The room was dark and Zalzi quietly answered his phone. “Uuh, Zalzi here. What’s up?” He tried in a way to sound as casual as he normally would be, but she could feel his hand shaking slightly. Tati could barely hear the muffled voice of Merise through the speaker, but the certain lilt in the voice on the other side of the connection revealed the identity of the caller. Zalzi huffed to whatever he heard her say and then sighed in expiration. “Yeah, thanks for the info, we figured that out by ourselves by now.” He squeaked back into the mic. It was silent for a little bit on Zalzi’s end while he listened to what else Merise had to say and Tatiana took the time to take a look around the dark room now that her eyes had adjusted a little bit. Her eyes turned wide as she squeezed Zalzi’s hand a little tighter when she realized where they had ended up.

“He was? Okay thank you for the warning, we’ll be on our way back as quickly as possible.” He hung up the phone and quickly shoved it back in his back pocket. “We have to go back,  _ now.  _ Merise saw Vladistov walking in the hallway upstairs and he seemed to be going in the direction of the basement and if he intents on reaching it, I don’t want to be here when he does. Tatiana? Tati-”

“This is the place.” She whispered in an exhale. There it was. Three cells and a privacy wall at the far end of the room. Of course the original setup of the barred cell blocks had been long since dismantled and so were the bedding that had been installed into the walls on the far ends of the cells, but Tati was pretty sure from comparing the memories of the footage she’d seen, to the room she was currently in, that this was the place where the experiments took place back in 1971. The walls separating the three cells were still there. And they were currently standing in the place where innocent students like them gained severe forms of PTSD after being subjected to the mistreatment they received during the experiments. Nothing about the room revealed that it was still being used for these experiments or any other for that, being that the only items occupying it were cardboard boxes. But it still felt sinister with the history behind it and she quickly opened the door behind her to get out of the room as quickly as she could. She didn’t really need to drag Zalzi behind her out the room, since his feet quickly restarted working on their own and he too took flight out of the room. 

They quick walked back up the stairs together, and they kept to the walls of the staircase, especially at the top. Once they were absolutely certain that there was nobody in the hallway currently, they quickly slipped completely out of the basement stairway and onto the ground floor. And just in time as well, because once they started walking away from the staircase, Vladistov rounded the corner ahead of them. 

When Vladistov noticed them walking towards him, he greeted them with a scoff and a deep frown. “Don’t be just stalking around after hours if you have no further business here. I’m sure you lovebirds have better things to do than annoy overworked professors. Go back to your dorms, if you’re just going to ghost around campus.” 

Honestly at that point both of them were just so relieved that they hadn’t been caught downstairs, that they only nodded and stuttered an apology before they hurried on pas Vladistov and further down the corridor. 

They returned to the study room entrance and only then Tatiana realized she had been tightly holding Zalzi’s hand the entire way back.


End file.
